This invention relates to improvements in a vapor cooled semiconductor device in which a semiconductor element involved is cooled through the utilization of a latent heat of vaporization of a cooling liquid.
The conventional type of vapor cooled semiconductor devices has been very high in the capability to cool the semiconductor element but has been disadvantageous in view of the construction. Since the semiconductor stack including the semiconductor element and the associated components and the mechanism for pressurizing and holding the stack have been constructed separately from the associated enclosed envelope, the semiconductor devices as a whole have been increased in the number of components and complicated in structure. Also, an increase in capacity of the semiconductor element has resulted in a higher compressive contact force required for the semiconductor element and therefore in the necessity of imparting to the associated pressurizing mechanism a mechanical strength sufficient to withstand such a higher compressive contact force. This has inevitably made the pressurizing mechanism and, therefore the entire device large-sized while increasing the amount of a cooling liquid used, thus leading to an expensive device.
The disadvantages as above described have been remarkable particularly for the single stack including a small number of semiconductor elements. For this reason, high capacity semiconductor devices have been frequently manufactured by incorporating a multiplicity of semiconductor elements into a single stack and disposing the stack in the associated enclosed envelope. This measure has been inconvenient in the maintenance because, for example, the failure of any one of the semiconductor elements has necessarily led to the replacement of the entire device including the enclosed envelope.